


Last Resort

by britomartisofcrete



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mortal, Angst with a Happy Ending, Banter, Based on a Waitress Song, Fluff, Inspired by Waitress - Bareilles/Nelson, Light Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Strangers, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29051871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/britomartisofcrete/pseuds/britomartisofcrete
Summary: Will, 23i wouldn’t be on here but my now ex started a fight this morning and i had tickets for the two of us to see waitress on broadway tonight. looking for someone to go with.~Will is desperate. He's just broken up with his ex, and he has two tickets to the Broadway musical Waitress in a few hours. None of his friends are available, so it's time for the last resort: Tinder.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 5
Kudos: 101





	Last Resort

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Nico! I’m celebrating by… writing a fic from Will’s POV. This is just for fun, because I love writing meet-cutes and AUs with very little high stakes angst.
> 
> Listening to Waitress is not required to understand the story, but hearing some songs may help a little to understand the emotions of a few moments, and I do spoil some parts of the plot (though nothing that’ll ruin the experience for you)! Check out the end notes for the songs I talk about, in case you want to follow along. Also, it’s just a really good, heartfelt musical that I highly recommend.

_ Will, 23 _

_ i wouldn’t be on here but my now ex started a fight this morning and i had tickets for the two of us to see waitress on broadway tonight. looking for someone to go with.  _

Will Solace stared down at his phone. He collapsed on the couch in his apartment, which was now cavernously empty in the absence of his two roommates, slumping down until his chin was almost resting on his chest and propping one foot up on the coffee table. The table itself was covered in tissues, a few boxes of takeout, and his portable speaker, which had been playing the saddest playlist he could find.

Really, Will would have been content to wallow in post-breakup sadness by himself until he inevitably got over it and went back to his normal life, sans boyfriend. But it was really getting down to the wire now; it was four in the afternoon and he had tickets for  _ Waitress _ at eight. Tickets he hadn’t even bought for himself. 

It had been a stupid fight, too. Will’s brain kept repeating that thought over and over with alternating swells of anger and regret. And now he’d be wasting a ticket if he couldn’t find someone to go with. Using Tinder had been Lou Ellen’s idea, texted to him from across the country where she was visiting her parents. Together, they’d run through everyone Will knew in the city and Will had texted and called his way through several  _ sorry, I can’t _ s and  _ I would but I’m working _ s and one very pointed  _ I’d rather die than go see a musical _ from Butch. In hindsight, that one had been a long shot. Now he had four hours to find a date, minus the twenty minute subway ride, and Lou’s Tinder idea seemed less and less far fetched, to the point that Will had redownloaded the app for the first time in months. 

Will swiped and sniffled simultaneously, working his way through another few tissues and a few mediocre-looking men, swiping right almost at random. There was a pounding just behind his eyes, probably from all the crying and nose-blowing. Even he had to be lucky sometimes, right?

That’s when his phone pinged.

_ You have a match! _

Will sat up, the worn blanket he’d wrapped around himself falling to his waist, and tried not to get too excited; he couldn’t just pick the first one he came across. He had to be selective.

Thoughts of being selective died the moment he tapped over to the mystery man’s profile. This guy was Will’s type almost exactly.  _ Nico, 22 _ looked brooding and dark in all the solo pictures, with olive skin and feathery black hair and a look like he hated whoever the photographer was— especially in the one photo where he was wearing a loud tropical print shirt— but there were two group shots that betrayed him. One was of him sandwiched between a short dark skinned girl and a stocky Asian guy, standing in a park or some kind of greenery. He was looking down at the shorter girl with such affection that Will felt his heart jump a bit. 

The other was a larger group photo with a bunch of people— students?— around Will’s age, clearly at a party of some kind. A taller girl with a long black braid had her hand on  _ Nico, 22 _ ’s shoulder and on his other side, a built white, blond guy was in the middle of saying something to him, and  _ Nico, 22 _ ’s face was split the most beautiful, unreserved laugh Will had ever seen. He almost forgot about the pressure behind his eyes.

_ Okay Nico, 22,  _ Will thought.  _ Might as well do this. _

His bio was empty, which Will took as a bit of a red flag, but when he swiped over to messages, there was already something waiting for him.

_ Hey _

Will frowned. So the texting style of  _ Nico, 22 _ left a bit to be desired. He would’ve preferred something a bit more interesting, but he couldn’t be too picky. He typed back:

_ hey! so i assume u are interested in seeing waitress tn?  _ and promptly dropped his phone onto the coffee table and fell back onto the couch with a sigh. This felt too much like cheating. He wasn’t even in a relationship anymore, he tried to remind himself, but still. Using the tickets with someone else seemed like a betrayal.

Feeling a bit too conflicted for his liking, Will picked up his phone again and called Lou Ellen. Before she even had a chance to say hello, he burst out, “I think I found someone.”

“Hello again,” she said, and Will could hear the laugh behind the words. “I’m great, how have you been.”

“Since I called you an hour ago? I’m still distraught.” Will sniffed loudly into his phone for effect. There was silence for a moment, and Will could practically feel Lou Ellen’s uncertainty as she tried to determine how genuine Will was being and figure out how to respond. Will loved her, but tact and dealing with emotions were his things, not hers. “But yeah, I think I found someone for  _ Waitress _ .”

“That’s great!” Relief colored her voice. “So the Tinder thing worked? You’re all set to go? What are you wearing?” 

Will looked down. At the moment, he was wearing his designated sad boy clothes: sweatpants and an overlarge camp sweatshirt, both stained and ratty from age. His hair was no doubt a mess as well. He decided to think about what he’d wear later. “Well, I’ve only sent him one message, but—”

“Are you kidding me?” Lou Ellen said, abandoning all pretenses. “I’m not letting you go anywhere with someone you’ve only sent a single message.” 

“You can’t stop me. I’m in mourning and can do what I want. And this was your idea,” Will replied, when his phone vibrated against his ear. “Wait, hold on, he sent something back.” He pulled up Tinder again to find the guy’s message.

_ What? _

_ What’s waitress? _

Will could hear Lou asking what the message said, but his head had started throbbing again. Was this guy making some kind of joke? Will sent a few question marks, then thought in case it wasn’t a joke, he’d better say more.

_ didnt u swipe because of my bio? for the tickets to waitress tn? _

_ its a broadway show _

If this guy— Nico— really was joking, Will was about to feel really stupid. Lou was still asking questions, but Will fended them off with a quick “hold on” as he saw the three dots appear indicating typing.

_ Oh sorry, my sister swiped on you without reading your bio to me _

_ I’ve never heard of it _

Never heard of  _ Waitress _ ? Even Will, who wasn’t really into the whole Broadway thing, knew about  _ Waitress _ . Wasn’t it one of the most popular musicals right now?

“William, if I wanted to be ignored, I’d be spending time with my mom right now!” Lou Ellen called through the phone. “Please, give me a crumb of information, I’m dying in suspense here.”

“Give me a second, I think he’s making fun of me,” Will murmured as he typed his response. 

_ wait why are u letting ur sister swipe for you _

_ does she wanna see waitress? _

“So ghost him.” Will could feel Lou Ellen’s eye roll through the phone. “There’s plenty of other hot guys on Tinder who want to see a Broadway show that will help you forget about—”

Will made a sound of indignance. “Can we not talk about that? I’m really trying not to think about it.”

There was a long pause. 

“Look, Will, you know you’re allowed to be sad, right?” Lou Ellen said softly. “You’re not gonna help yourself by not talking about it. We both know how you get about this stuff, and I don’t want you to bottle it up and joke about it and pretend you’ve moved on when really you’re hurting.”

“I know.” Sometimes Will really loved his best friend. A fist squeezed around his heart and he could feel another onslaught of tears building up, but he thought Lou Ellen might not appreciate him crying into the phone— again— so he cleared his throat. “Thank you. I just don’t think I’ve completely processed it, so I don’t know how to talk about it. I think… I think it’s going to take a while.”

Lou let out a long sigh. “I get it. But I’m here for you, you know? Like, not  _ there _ here, but I’m always here.”

“I know,” Will said again with a laugh. There was another few seconds where neither of them said anything, and while Will was sure Lou Ellen was worrying about saying the wrong thing or overstepping, he spent the time with a ridiculous little smile on his face because he really did have the best friends.

“So… what did he say?”  
“What?”

“Your boy!” Lou Ellen said with exasperation. “Tinder boy who was making fun of you, what did he say?”

“Oh!” Will pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speakerphone so he could look at the newest message from Nico.

_ She said I need to put myself “out there” so she’s showing me pictures and swiping on the ones that I don’t actively cringe at  _

“He said he’s never heard of  _ Waitress _ , and his sister is swiping for him,” Will said, frowning down at his screen. “Also, he didn’t, and I quote, ‘actively cringe’ at my photos.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

_ a compliment of the highest degree thank u _

“Not sure. Oh, hold on, he’s typing.”

_ Anytime. Also as much as I’m sure hazel would love to see waitress, I’ve never actually seen a broadway show _

“Lou,” Will said slowly, feeling excitement despite himself. “I might be taking this man to see his first Broadway show.”

_ oh excellent!! are u free tonight at 8? _

“That’s great!” Lou said. From her tone, Will’s enthusiasm was apparently contagious, but she sounded a little hesitant. “I’m still a little worried about you going to meet this random guy. Just keep me updated, okay? If I don’t hear from you…”

_ Yeah, I can meet you at the theater? _

_ And could I get your Venmo or something so I can pay you back for the ticket _

“We’re meeting at the theater,” Will said, waving off her concerns. He quickly typed out the address of the theater and his Venmo username, insisting that Nico only needed to pay half of the price for his ticket. “It’ll be full of people and if anything happens, there’ll be plenty of witnesses.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel better.”

_ I’ll see you there, then? _

_ Sorry, I don’t know how this is supposed to work. I didn’t expect to get a date this fast _

“Okay, pause,” Will said. He stood up from the couch and started walking to the kitchenette to work out some of his nervous energy. “He just called it a date.”

“Moving a little fast there, huh?” Lou Ellen laughed. “Relax, Will. You found this guy on a literal dating app. Of course he thinks it’s a date.”

“But I’m barely single.” Will leaned on the kitchen counter and started tapping his fingers, a nervous tick he never grew out of. “What if I don’t want to go on a date so fast?”

“Will, listen to me,” Lou Elled said. “You’re meeting up with this person one time so you don’t waste the tickets. You’ll probably never talk to him again. You’re not committing to a relationship, you’re not rebounding, you’re not even going into this with a romantic vibe. Just try to enjoy one night without overthinking what it is.”

Will furrowed his eyebrows and started tapping the counter faster. He had to reply with something. “You’re right. No overthinking.”

_ i guess its ur lucky day then? _

That was when the overthinking started. Was that too flirty? Was Will giving him the wrong idea?  _ It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, _ he tried to tell himself.  _ You’re going to see him once and that’s it.  _ But Nico wasn’t responding. The three dots weren’t even showing up. Had he overstepped? 

“I can feel you overthinking,” Lou Ellen warned. 

Will’s hands froze on the counter. “I’m not overthinking. Just… thinking.” 

“Right.”

Will looked suspiciously at the phone. Was she watching him? “I’m not overthinking. The show’s in three hours, and I have no idea what I’m wearing.”

Lou Ellen left him on his own for that one, but not before reiterating that she’d always be here for him and to call if he was overthinking again. Will appreciated that, even though he knew it was her way of begging him to call her more often so she wouldn’t be totally alone with her family and her rocky relationship with her mom. He liked that she needed him as much as he needed her, even if she didn’t say as much. 

Her pep talk was almost enough to get him through a shower and choosing an outfit, though his temporary respite from heartbreak faded fast when he picked up his phone again and caught a glimpse of the lock screen. A photo of him and his ex at a mutual friends’ birthday party. Will quickly unlocked his phone and changed the photo to an embarrassing one of Lou Ellen, thinking it would give him a good laugh, with the added bonus of revenge for  _ her _ lockscreen, a photo of Will asleep in a lecture. He admired the picture for a few moments, before remembering he had meant to text his stepbrother as an extra form of backup in case Nico really did turn out to be a creep. 

Austin responded with an almost inappropriate level of concern to the fact that Will was planning to meet a stranger, but agreed to call with a fake emergency as soon as Will gave the word. Will ended the conversation before Austin could ask about what had happened with his ex— Will cringed every time he thought of that word, it was just too soon and too weird— and went back to getting ready.

He was just thinking how odd it was that Nico still hadn’t responded, and was preparing to do some last minute swiping, as there was only two hours to showtime now, when his phone buzzed again. Thinking it was another text from Austin, Will grabbed the phone. But this time with a Venmo notification from @nico-diangelo:

_ Getting lucky.  _

It was the full ticket amount.

~

Punctuality was probably the thing Will was best at. He wasn’t afraid to get to the theater a full hour before the show started. Mostly, he had been tired of pacing around his empty apartment; the loneliness was kind of suffocating. A crowded subway and Broadway on a Friday night were more his speed. When Nico sent him an  _ leaving now  _ message forty minutes before the show started, Will realized he’d have some time to kill, so he spent it walking up and down Times Square, earbuds in and trying to people-watch while not getting upset over the honestly disgusting amount of couples just blatantly holding hands. In public. As if Will wasn’t clearly heartbroken.

Twenty minutes to showtime, Will was back in front of the theater and combing the crowds for anyone who looked like Nico. He was just starting to think it had been a bit of a mistake not to ask what Nico would be wearing when he spotted a familiar looking face turning in off of Broadway. 

But that couldn’t be him, right? There were two other people on either side of him. Yet Will had stared at Nico’s photos and over thought his choices enough to know it was him. Then he realized that the girl on his left was the one he had been smiling down at in the photo on his profile. And the other one, a tall, regal-looking girl with long dark hair looked familiar as well. Will tried to push down an intrusive thought-spiral that had him wondering whether he should have bought tickets for those two as well.  _ That was ridiculous _ , he reminded himself, _ stop overthinking. This is a date, allegedly.  _ Will raised a hand to wave at Nico, who started to wave back, before stopping the two girls short. 

Some kind of conversation happened, maybe an argument, but they were too far down the block for Will to hear anything. Nico used his hands as he talked, pointing back down to Broadway and then towards Will. The girls exchanged glances, and the shorter one placed her hand on Nico’s arm and said something else. Then they were leaving and Nico was turning back and striding toward Will.

“Hey!” Will’s mind went blank. He didn’t think he’d make it this far. “I’m Will.”

“I know, I couldn’t miss the hair.” Nico, suddenly and frighteningly a real person in front of Will’s face and not just on his screen, gave a small smile and gestured at Will’s shock of blond hair. “I’m Nico.” He stretched his hand out, and it was an embarrassing second before Will realized he was supposed to shake it.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m just… I don’t really know how this is supposed to go,” Will said, grinning sheepishly. “It’s been a while since I’ve, you know.”

“Been on the market?” Nico guessed. “I could tell from your bio.”

“So you did end up reading it!”

Nico laughed a little, and Will felt his shoulders relax. They started walking toward the doors to the theater. “I figured I should know a little more about the stranger I was meeting with. And my sister didn’t want me to go in totally blind.” When he said sister, he waved his hand vaguely in the direction the two girls had walked off in.

“Oh!” Will said, putting together the pieces. “That’s your sister?”

“Yeah, the shorter one was my sister Hazel,” Nico said before narrowing his eyes at Will, like he expected him to question Nico’s family. Will, a seasoned expert at nontraditional families and getting strange looks for not looking like his siblings, just nodded and hummed in acknowledgement. Nico seemed to relax a bit at that, and continued. “The taller one was my friend Reyna. They’re both a little, ah, protective, I guess.”

“Makes sense. Can’t really say the same for my friends though, one of them was the one who told me to do this. Here’s your ticket, by the way.” Will pulled the paper out of his pocket and passed it to Nico as they shuffled along the line to security and bag check. Nico’s pale fingers brushed his more than was technically necessary, but when he looked up, Nico was staring determinedly at the posters next to the theater doors that touted rave reviews.

Now that he’d gotten over the stress of the first meeting and he had some time to calm down as they waited to pass through the doors, Will was starting to notice that Nico was seriously attractive. Not the type of guy Will normally went for, but undeniably good-looking in a mysterious kind of way. He had a real grunge look going, with dark clothing and silver jewelry, his fluffed black curls softening what might have been an almost scary aesthetic. Looking at him next to the bright pinks and blues of the  _ Waitress  _ posters, he looked completely out of place, until he looked at Will and said, “Isn’t crazy that this show didn’t win any Tonys?”

Will blinked. “What?”

“Uh… it was nominated for four Tonys, but didn’t win any,” Nico said, looking at Will with an odd expression on his face. “Because it was nominated the same year as  _ Hamilton. _ ”

“What?” Will said again as they walked through the doors and into the theater lobby. “How do you know that?”

“I… don’t you like musicals?” Nico said, something akin to apprehension on his face.

They had to stop as an usher passed them Playbills and pointed them to their seats. “I guess I do, but I don’t really know that much,” Will shrugged as they made their way up a set of stairs to the mezzanine. 

Nico stopped in his tracks. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone on the stairs behind him. “Why would you buy tickets to  _ Waitress _ , then?” 

“I don’t know?” Will was starting to get confused. Broadway shows were just something you did if you lived in New York long enough. “My ex wanted to see it, I thought it would be fun. It’s not like you’re the expert, you told me you’ve never seen a Broadway show before.”

“I haven’t!” Nico said defensively. “I’ve never seen any musicals, they’re not my thing. I thought they were your thing!”

“But then how— wait.” Realization was dawning on Will. “Did you… Did you look up fun facts about the show a stranger from the Internet is taking you to?” Will asked incredulously. “Did you want to  _ impress me  _ with all your knowledge?”

Nico wouldn’t meet his eyes again. He was blushing. “No.”

Will felt his face breaking into an involuntary grin. “That’s seriously the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Rolling his eyes, Nico pushed past Will to continue up the stairs. “Shut up.”

It was probably a full ten seconds before Will could move again. He just stood there, grinning up at Nico, unable to believe that this guy, who tried so hard to seem edgy and aloof, had gone to the trouble of trying to understand something that he thought a total stranger was into. It was the most randomly thoughtful thing anyone had done for him. 

Nico turned to look at him from the top of the stairs. “Don’t flatter yourself, idiot, it’s not a big deal. Come on.”

As they made their way down the stairs past the rows on the mezzanine, Will found himself wanting to prod a little more at Nico. “So you’ve never seen a single musical?”

Nico looked back at him appraisingly, before seeming to come to the conclusion that Will wasn’t making fun of him this time. “No. I just never thought I would be into it, like I said.”

They got to their row, two behind the balcony of the mezzanine, and started making their way to the center seats, so Will couldn’t respond as they wiggled past the filled seats in their row. Then they were pulling off their coats and sitting down, and Will had to ask, “Then why would you do this?”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Do what? Go see a musical I’ve never heard of with someone I’ve never met?”

“Yeah, that.”

“I don’t know. Call me curious,” he shrugged. “Or self destructive.”

At that, Will couldn’t help but smile again.

“But the real question is, why would  _ you  _ do this?” Nico asked. “Break up with your partner on the day you’re supposed to see a show? And then go with a stranger, not a friend or something?”

Coming from anyone else, Will probably would’ve taken offense. The way Nico put it, like it was all Will’s fault, was a little tactless. But for some reason, Nico asking the question so bluntly didn’t come across as mean, but like he was actually interested in knowing and maybe even a little concerned. It reminded him a bit of Lou Ellen. He thought that maybe, even if this didn’t go anywhere, he’d at least have a chance at a new friend. 

“I didn’t really mean to break up with him, we just got in this really stupid fight and it, um, escalated past a point of no return, I guess. It’s not like I picked today, of all days.” Strangely, he didn’t feel so much like crying as he thought he might. Maybe because they were in public, or maybe because he was starting to understand that it had probably happened for a reason.  _ That’s ridiculous,  _ Will thought.  _ You can’t possibly be over him. It’s been less than twelve hours.  _ “And as for why a stranger, all of my friends conveniently decided to be out of the state or unavailable today.”

Nico snorted, which shouldn’t have looked so graceful, with him in his dark clothing, slouched over in the fancy theater seat. “Glad to be your last resort.” 

“Hey, you are far from last resort,” Will said, knocking his elbow with Nico’s gently. “Last resort was wasting the tickets completely and spending Friday night curled up in bed with ice cream.” 

Nico looked up at him and seemed to catch the levity in the words, because he laughed. And just like that, the heavy moment was lifted. Will was kind of amazed at how quickly they’d passed by that topic; he had been expecting it to take up more emotional bandwidth. 

“So what’s the show about anyway? Why are there pies everywhere?” Nico was looking at the stage, which was covered by a lattice pie crust patterned curtain and surrounded on either side by rows of pies. 

“It’s about a waitress, obviously, who works in a pie shop and gets pregnant and hooks up with her doctor,” Will recited the summary of the show he’d seen when he bought the tickets. “It’s based on a movie.”

Nico nodded slowly, eyebrows raised, a hint of laughter still in his face. “Wow. Sounds fun.”

“Hooking up with your doctor?”  
“Well that, too,” Nico said, clearly trying hard not to crack up. “I was gonna say working in a pie shop.”

They were still laughing, to the chagrin of the people on either side of them, when the lights dimmed and the orchestra started tuning. As they settled back into their seats and the first notes played, Will wondered about his ex and his thoughts of being  _ over it _ , whatever that meant. Realistically, Will knew he wasn’t done being sad. And he probably wouldn’t be for a while. But he also knew he’d made the right choice by coming out tonight and not wasting the tickets, not least of all because he’d met a potential friend. Will tried hard not to think about the potential for more-than-friends, because that was coming dangerously close to rebounding, and if he agreed with Lou Ellen on anything, that wasn’t a good idea. 

Will shook his head, trying to physically clear his head of the thoughts threatening to crowd it so he could focus on the show. In his peripheral vision, he could see Nico turning to look at him, his face half illuminated by the lights from the stage, but he chose to pretend he didn’t notice, instead staring intently at the solitary figure kneading pie dough on the stage.

~

The show was good. More than good; it was exactly what Will needed. The audience laughed their way through the first act, with the shenanigans of the pie shop staff and the growing tension between Jenna and her doctor keeping everyone on their toes. When they got to the song where Jenna’s coworker worries about going on a date with someone she met online, Nico elbowed Will sharply and whispered out of the corner of his mouth, “That’s you.”

Will blushed and rolled his eyes, but Nico got his comeuppance a few scenes later when the online love interest came into the pie shop and sang about how he would never give up on loving the coworker. Will bumped Nico’s shoulder. “I guess that means that’s you?”

“Shut up.” 

In the applause break after the song, Will chanced a glance at Nico, who was looking back with a begrudging smile while he clapped. The eye contact was startling. Nico’s eyes were dark and steady, and Will started to feel the warmth of a blush again, so he turned to look back at the stage. It didn’t help that the next song was a montage of Jenna and her doctor hooking up over and over as they sang about how it wasn’t a good idea. By intermission, Will was sure his neck was fully red, and Nico wouldn’t make eye contact with him. When the lights came up, Nico excused himself to use the bathroom and Will took the opportunity to text Austin and Lou Ellen separately that Nico was perfectly normal and the not-date was going well. 

In the second act, things started going downhill. It started out well enough, with a revelation of a new romance in the pie shop and a fun reprise of an earlier song that had the audience in stitches. But then Jenna and Dr. Pomatter had a heart to heart about their affair and their emotions and whether they were bad people, and then Jenna started composing a letter to her unborn baby, and something about her words was too much for Will’s already fragile emotional state.

“Dear baby,” Jenna said from the stage, and it felt like she was speaking right to Will. Her eyes were gazing far up into the audience, but Will was sure she must have been looking right at him. Her words seemed to see right into his heart. “I hope someday, somebody wants to hold you for twenty minutes straight. I hope you become addicted to sayin' things and having them matter to someone.”

Will felt his tears from earlier well back up in his eyes, but he couldn’t even bring himself to be embarrassed. He just felt picked apart and left out to dry. And then Dr. Pomatter and Jenna started singing to each other about how much they mattered, and the tears spilled over. He tried to sniffle quietly and pull himself together, but he couldn’t take his focus off the stage and the pure sadness he felt.

The sniffle must have caught Nico’s attention, because Will felt a hand slip into his own and give a small squeeze. Will’s aching heart stuttered for a moment, as if confused, unsure where to go from here. He didn’t want to break the moment, so he kept his eyes on the stage, but with the pressure of Nico’s hand in his, reassuring and steady, Will felt at once incredibly glad for his presence. Their hands separated to applaud at the end of the song, and when Will glanced sideways at Nico, he was just as intent on watching the stage as ever.

That would have been the worst of the emotional turmoil, if it hadn’t been for Jenna’s awful husband stealing the money she’d saved up to leave him, resulting in an entirely heartbreaking song about Jenna’s loss of control over her life and her looking back at her past self with longing. 

It was bad enough for Will’s turbulent mind and heart, but he happened to glance over at Nico, who had stoically watched every other sad part of the show. Now, though, he was silently crying almost as hard as Will had been earlier. Will looked back at the stage and it seemed like things were in sharper focus. Jenna sang about being broken, lonely, messy, imperfect. The sense of loss was almost too much for Will, and it was clearly too much for Nico. 

This left Will in a bit of a bind; he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Grab Nico’s hand like Nico had? Pretend he didn’t see? 

Trying not to think about it too much, he reached over, keeping his eyes on the stage, and laced his fingers with Nico’s. Immediately, he knew he had made the right move. Nico gripped his hand and didn’t drop it, even when the song ended and the audience exploded for the actress playing Jenna. It wasn’t until several long minutes later that Nico pulled away, and even then, Will could tell he was grateful. 

~

There was a happy ending, if not the one Will expected. Neither of them shed any more tears, but Will’s heart was still pretty shattered on the carpeted theater floor by the time the audience got to its feet during the curtain call. He still couldn’t decide whether this had been a good idea or not. It felt like the musical had rubbed salt in what was still a very fresh wound, but in a way, there was also a sense of catharsis there as well.

They didn’t say anything to each other as they clapped along with everyone, and stayed quiet as they left the theater. Will had a feeling Nico was feeling a similar kind of conflict as he was. 

It wasn’t until they turned onto Broadway, now illuminated only by the flashing lights of Times Square, that Nico spoke up. “So, were you gonna head home?”

Will was exceptionally relieved that Nico didn’t intend to do the perfunctory  _ wow that show was so good, I loved it _ remarks. He would’ve felt empty trying to participate in that; the catharsis had left him with nothing inside but more tears. So instead, he followed Nico’s lead and they started talking about how they’d be getting home, and discovered they were on the same subway route. 

The walk to the nearest station and the wait for the train was a quiet affair as well. Will was just starting to feel awkward as they stepped onto the mostly empty subway car and sat down, when Nico spoke again. 

“Thanks for inviting me tonight.”

“No problem,” Will said, feeling like it wasn’t enough. “Thanks for… being on Tinder at the exact right moment.” He wanted to say more, to tell Nico that he really was glad that he hadn’t spent the night alone, even though it was mostly by chance that they’d met. “Seriously, thank you. You kinda saved me from myself tonight.”

Nico smiled at his feet, stretched out in front of him, his skin looking washed out and pale in the overhead lighting. Somehow it made him look better, Will caught himself thinking. “I guess thank you too, then.” For a moment, it seemed like he was going to say more, to explain. But then, “How many stops? I can walk you home.”

“Just four. You don’t have to do that.” 

“It’s fine, I was gonna get off in four anyway,” Nico shrugged.

“Oh.” It still felt like Nico was holding back something he wanted to say, although Will couldn’t blame him, given the situation. Will really wanted to ask about what had affected Nico so much about the song Jenna sang about her lost sense of self. What loss had he experienced that connected him to the song in such a visceral way? A question like that would definitely be overstepping, but the very fact of his own curiosity did surprise him. 

They didn’t say anything else as the stops ticked by, but Will felt more comfortable than he would’ve thought. He stared up at the subway map across from them and began to tap his feet restlessly. His brain refused to focus on anything but the fact that Nico’s shoulder was pressed right up against his. Nico was twisting a silver ring on his right hand, and it made Will think of holding his hand again, although again he restrained himself from overstepping. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the air between them seemed so much more weighted than before the lights went down in the theater. 

That palpable weight hung heavy between them as they walked up and out into the night air together and without thinking, Will led them in the direction of his building. Definitely not a smart choice, considering his present company was a stranger, but he felt okay about Nico. Maybe that was naive. It definitely was naive.

“This is me,” Will said after a few blocks, stopping in front of his building’s door and turning to face Nico. 

Nico’s eyes flicked up to the building for a second before refocusing on Will. “I’m just a couple minutes down that way.” He waved his hand down the block.

“Cool,” Will said. He searched his brain for something else to say, not wanting to leave on such an awkward note. “Um, so—”

“I don’t—” Nico started at the same time.

They both stopped talking and looked at each other for a moment before starting to laugh. Will didn’t know why this was suddenly so funny to him. Maybe the fact that it was funny to Nico, or that the tension that had been between them was kind of pointless. “You go ahead,” he managed between breaths of laughter.

“No, you,” Nico said, also trying to suppress his grin.

“Mine wasn’t important,” Will said. 

“Just go.”

Will raised his eyebrows at Nico’s demand. “I was just going to apologize for making this awkward.”

Nico looked confused, forehead wrinkling. “You didn’t, I thought I did.”

“No, you didn’t,” Will said. “This was always going to be an awkward night, because you you were, like, my last choice—” Nico made a small sound of indignation, which Will ignored— “you were, and then I had to go and make it worse by just, you know, being myself, or whatever.” 

Will thought that was a pretty vulnerable thing to say, so when he saw that Nico was still trying not to laugh, he wondered if he should feel offended. Nico probably noticed, because he tried to explain. 

“I’m not laughing at you, I promise,” Nico said, though the twitching corners of his mouth told a different story. “I just thought I messed it up by being  _ me _ . Not talking to you on the ride home and stuff. I didn’t know what to say. You seemed upset during the show and I felt like… I don’t know, I was intruding. Today probably sucked for you, and I didn’t really make it easier.”

“Today did suck,” Will admitted. “But you did make it easier. I didn’t have to suffer alone.”

Nico seemed surprised by that. At least surprised enough to stop smiling. “Well. You’re welcome then.” 

Will grinned at him. For a long moment, he just looked at Nico. Today had probably made the list of worst days of Will’s life, and that was saying quite a bit, but he’d still managed to make a friend. At least, he hoped. 

Then he shivered from a particularly cold gust of winter air, and Nico blinked, apparently startled out of a reverie. “You should get inside.” 

He was right, Will thought, and was turning to go into the building when he paused and turned back. “I just thought…” He hesitated.

“What?” 

“What were you going to say?” Will asked. “You know, a minute ago.”

Nico looked at his feet and shifted his weight, clearly caught off guard by the question. “It doesn’t matter.”

“That’s what I said, and you made me say mine,” Will insisted.

“Okay, whatever,” Nico said, rolling his eyes, which made Will smile again despite himself. “I was going to say thank you for taking me to my first Broadway show, first musical, and all that.” 

Again, Will saw Nico teetering on the edge of saying what he was really thinking but not letting himself. Like he was afraid of being honest. Will didn’t say anything, just looked at him and waited to see what might happen. 

“And, um.” Nico still wouldn’t meet his eyes, and he delivered his next words looking at the space next to Will’s ear. “I know you’re still probably in pain, or whatever you’re feeling. But I genuinely had a really good time tonight. And, if you’re ever, you know, ready for… whatever…” Nico stopped again, uncertain, but Will was desperate to know what he was going to say. Then Nico’s eyes were suddenly on his own again, and Will was thrown by the steadiness of his gaze. “I’m here. And interested. And no pressure, obviously, but I don’t want this to be the last time I see you. Even if it’s as friends.”

The words were out of Will’s mouth before he could stop them. “I hope it’s not the last time, too,” he said, and found that he really did mean it. The relieved look on Nico’s face alleviated any potential for regret.

Nico was shifting his weight again, but still looking right at Will, which he took to be a good sign. Then, before Will had time to react, Nico took a step forward, stretched up on his toes, and kissed Will on the cheek. It was so gentle and incongruous with Nico’s appearance, but also didn’t feel romantic at all. In his head, Will had a sudden image of Nico kissing his sister on the cheek like this: comforting, caring. He felt a wash of affection for this boy he’d just met pass through his chest. 

There was a long second, and then Nico was pulling away and stepping back. He gave Will one last soft smile before turning and striding down the street faster than was probably necessary.

It was long after Nico had turned a corner and disappeared into the night that Will stopped staring after him and stepped into his building, out of the cold.

**Author's Note:**

> This is entirely self indulgent. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love nothing more than a good meet-cute. Please let me know what you think, I'd love to know!
> 
> This is based on a story I overheard on the train, and the vibes felt right so I wrote it for our two favorite boys. Headcanon that Waitress never closed on Broadway. Also yes, this did arise partly out of my longing to go see musicals again.
> 
> Songs that are mentioned in the story, in case you want to listen:  
> \- Nico saying “that’s you”: When He Sees Me  
> \- Will saying “I guess that means that’s you”: Never Ever Getting Rid of Me  
> \- Act one closer that Will blushes at: Bad Idea  
> \- The song that makes Will cry: You Matter to Me  
> \- The song that makes Nico cry: She Used to Be Mine (didn't think about how wonderfully this song aligns with Nico's story until I was halfway through writing this but man, some lines really do hit hard for him)
> 
> Also, headcanon that Nico texts with capitals and proper grammar because he doesn’t care enough to change settings on his phone. On the other hand, Will absolutely wants to come off as casual and not over enthusiastic or imposing, so he made the effort to make his texting appear that way by changing his settings.


End file.
